Did a little work on the trailer last night. Up til now I've had two water cans and a CO2 tank mounted on the tongue right in front of the bed and a Cooler mounted in front of them. On steep climbs the cooler get VERY close to the spare tire on the back of my truck. So I needed to make a little more room and I didn't want to extend the tongue.

So, I ended up building full steps in front and behind the fenders and the water cans are now mounted on the front steps. Those steps will also be the mounting base for a new adjustable tent rack I've started to build. The tent rack will be around 50" from the ground during transit and when camped it will raise to a height of 74" from the ground. That will allow me to walk upright underneath the open tent. It will also allow better access into the trailer.

After I moved the cans, that allowed me to move the cooler back almost 12" closer to the bed of the trailer to allow for MUCH better room between the trailer and truck.

I've also started a rear swing out tire carrier for the trailer.

Pumped about these changes as I've had them planned for a long time but haven't had time to work on them. We've got several family wheeling/camping trips planned for this summer and it was a good excuse to get this stuff done.

Did a little work on the trailer last night. Up til now I've had two water cans and a CO2 tank mounted on the tongue right in front of the bed and a Cooler mounted in front of them. On steep climbs the cooler get VERY close to the spare tire on the back of my truck. So I needed to make a little more room and I didn't want to extend the tongue.

So, I ended up building full steps in front and behind the fenders and the water cans are now mounted on the front steps. Those steps will also be the mounting base for a new adjustable tent rack I've started to build. The tent rack will be around 50" from the ground during transit and when camped it will raise to a height of 74" from the ground. That will allow me to walk upright underneath the open tent. It will also allow better access into the trailer.

After I moved the cans, that allowed me to move the cooler back almost 12" closer to the bed of the trailer to allow for MUCH better room between the trailer and truck.

I've also started a rear swing out tire carrier for the trailer.

Pumped about these changes as I've had them planned for a long time but haven't had time to work on them. We've got several family wheeling/camping trips planned for this summer and it was a good excuse to get this stuff done.

The rack is made from 1.5" square tubes welded to the side of the trailer tub and the rack itself is 1x2" square tube for the platform and 1.25" square tube for the legs that slide down inside the 1.5" tubes on the tub.

Each post has a spring loaded "pop pin" to keep it locked in either the low or high setting. Each corner has a 50lb gas strut to raise the tent.

Zinc coated handles on the sides of the platform (actually just some cut down ubolts) to help pull the rack back down to the low setting.

Pull the 4 pop pins (1 on each corner) and the platform goes up to the height needed to use the annex with the RTT.

Some quick pics of the tent set up with the annex. It was getting dark so I didn't open up all the windows etc.

Spent last week camping in Socal with the fam and going to Disneyland. No offroad towing involved on this trip so we took the "Burb". We're packing up and heading out again tomorrow for S. Dakota and plan to do a little wheeling in the black hills and badlands so we're taking the Tacoma this time. Stoked.

Leading up to these trips I made a few more changes to the trailer. In the above pic you can see that I added two Hella 1000 Black Magics to the rear swing out for camp lights. Also, if you look close you can see the rack I added right under the tent for a camp table. Works slick. Table just slides in and has a small lock to keep it in place.

On the front I made a new bracket for my CO2 tank and another for a 5 gal fuel can. So for now there's 10gal of water 5 of fuel, 20lbs of CO2 and whatever I can fit in the fridge.